Family Loo Floated For Union Station

If you have to pee at Union Station, you may be in luck: A third public bathroom is in the works.

That is, if it’s not too expensive to design and build and locate somewhere in the city’s historic transit hub.

That prospective new Union Station ​“family restroom” was fodder for debate Monday night at the regular monthly Park New Haven meeting at the city parking authority’s headquarters at 232 George St.

One of the items on the commission’s agenda was a motion to enter the authority into a professional service agreement with the Rocky Hill-based parking consultants Desman, Inc. for professional engineering services related to the construction of a new family restroom at Union Station.

Director of Planning and Engineering James Staniewicz explained that that consulting hire would result in design and planning and bid documents for a roughly 100 square-foot restroom with one toilet, one sink, and a changing table.

The bathroom would likely be located on the ground floor of the station where a Webster Bank ATM currently stands, between the current pair of men’s and women’s bathrooms and the doors that lead to the station’s parking garage.

“It’s a rather small but very complex issue,” Staniewicz said, involving architectural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and signage design and construction work, all for a relatively small space.

Commissioners ultimately voted to table the item until next month’s meeting after Commissioner Larry Stewart raised an eyebrow at the expected cost: $44,000. Just for the design.

“For a soft cost that seems high,” he said. ​“Really, really high.” Actual construction would likely cost quite a bit more, he said, putting the total bathroom design and build-out cost at well over $100,000 in total.

Where would this money come from? Stewart asked.

From the Union Station Capital Improvement Fund, Staniewicz said, a part of the authority’s annual capital budget dedicated specifically for repairs and new construction projects at Union Station.

“It’s the scale,” Staniewicz said, that is driving the cost. Especially for design. Because regardless of the ultimate size of the project, the authority has to go through the same bid process and pay for the same minimum of electrical, architectural, plumbing etc… design work.

City transit chief and Park New Haven Acting Executive Director Doug Hausladen said that this project, along with a prospective new lactation pod tentatively planned for the western side of the main hall near the Amtrak Police offices, is part of a larger planned refresh of the station’s customer service and retail amenities.

Currently, if one of the station’s two single-gender restrooms is out of order, then roughly half of the station’s visitors have to hold their pee. Men have to wait for the men’s room to reopen, or women have to wait for the women’s room to reopen.

This planned new ​“family restroom” would be gender neutral, and would provide at the very least a back-up spot for commuters to relieve themselves on their way to or from their travels if the primary bathrooms are temporarily closed.

Furthermore, he said, this spot where the Wesbter Bank ATM currently stands is one of the few viable spaces that he and his team have been able to find so far to insert a new bathroom. All of the water pipes required for a new bathroom are nearby thanks to the existing two bathrooms, he said, making that side of the building an attractive choice.

It would also keep the restroom on the groundfloor, rather than burying it in the basement by the tunnel that leads to the train passenger platforms.

“Can we roll this into a larger project?” Commissioner Donna Curran asked. So as to cut down on the design and construction costs associated with a unique, standalone project like this bathroom? Or putting a new larger bathroom in the Dunkin Donuts location downstairs by the tunnel?

Commissioner Andy Orefice pointed out that the parking authority seems to be caught in the middle of a ​“chicken and egg” conundrum: It wants more Union Station retail options, which would bring more customers and travelers to Union Station and potentially increase the parking authority’s revenue and ability to pay for capital projects like the family bathroom; but retailers are likely wary of moving into a station that only has two bathrooms to start with. Leaving the parking authority trying to scramble to find the money to build the bathroom to attract the retailers.

“I don’t think we’re questioning the value” of having another public bathroom at the station, Curran said, noting that the line for the women’s room is almost always out the door. ​“I think we’re just questioning the numbers.”

The commissioners unanimously voted to table the item. Hausladen promised that he and his staff would do more research on the family bathroom project and bring the prospective design contract back up for another vote at the authority’s next meeting in November.

Click here to read an article about a recent Homeless Advisory Commission debate about an entirely different new public bathroom consideration.